Heart of Darkness

By Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad Book Review Score: ★★★★★ 5/5 stars

Heart of Darkness (1899) is a short novel by Polish novelist Joseph Conrad, written as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow's life as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa. The river is "a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land". In the course of his travel in central Africa, Marlow becomes obsessed with Mr. Kurtz.

User reviews about this book

Unimpressed

1

By sixVI6

In a word, unimpressed. I knew there was a reason that I refused to read this book in high school after the first five pages — and having finished it just now only confirms my misgivings almost 25 years ago.
Without the absurdly excessive and redundant descriptions and metaphors, this book would have been 10 pages, at the most.
But the lengthiness is not my main issue with this story. My problem is how little time is committed to developing the extent of Marlow’s relationship with Kurtz, given Conrad’s insistence on convincing the reader how well Marlow knew Kurtz. That drove me nuts! Marlow is talking about Kurtz at the end of the book as if he had spent years in the bush with him, when the book seems to have dedicated less than 40 pages to the actual Kurtz-Marlow dialogue.
In closing, I would like to note that Conrad’s style of writing, particularly his use of comma splices and long sentences is EXACTLY why I tell my graduate students to avoid comma splices and the passive voice as much as possible in their writing.
Safe to say, I’ll never read anything by Conrad again.

Heart of darkness

2

By choonkief

Hated this book. Did not finish it

Joseph Conrad is a genius

5

By Hazenoot

To read this book, a certain lens must be put on to fully understand its material: the lens of humanity. There is a moral credence that Conrad writes with to share his experiences with the world. If you make the mistake of reading from the lens of commerce or history, you would be sorely disappointed in the lack of detail.
The characters are shaped by the darkness of the times where African people were looked upon as savages. The sympathy that one needs to give to another ruins those in power over the ivory industry of the Belgian Congo.

Great

5

By Dai Daniel

Bringing back the Lord of flies

Heart of Darkness

4

By pandabear143657

a great book that describes the struggles as a african american. this book has many similies that make the story come alive. This book is not for kids but a great classic.

Heart of Darkness Review

2

By Britterbree

Okay, so this is a required summer reading book for my AP Literature class and it is so hard to follow and tell what's going on at times. The book does have some very beautifully described scenery. Other than that, if you would love to slowly die on the inside while reading, this "short story" is the one for you. Another plus is that it's free

Terrible

1

By Notsofun

This book is completely racist and unethical to say the least. Waste of time and not worth the read.

heart of darkness

1

By kenzzzzzž

a lot of fluff, not much story. very boring

Heart of Darkness

5

By Lenina13

This is a moral and magnificent meditation on what drives the soul under extreme unknown circumstances. The eloquent dexterity of the language able to amply describe circumstances with psychological understanding. A brilliant if chilling account of raw survival. A definite book to read slowly savoring the language and the world invoked. Lisa

Interesting

5

By fwedeorange

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Although very hard to understand, the plot is very well-developed. I had to read this for a class in college. I had to open SparkNotes to fully understand the whole story. Overall, such a great book with a very interesting theme. Captivates your attention.